SININGGAZANAK : A short story of the famous female wooden figure from Kampung Tampasak, Kinarut, Papar

SININGGAZANAK : A short story of the famous female wooden figure from Kampung Tampasak, Kinarut, Papar

Female wooden figure in Kampung Tampasak is closely associated with property inheritance, in this case a widow with no children.

The female wooden figure stood on a land at Kampung Tampasak, about half a mile from Kinarut on the Kota Kinabalu side along the Papar Road was recovered in 1965. The female wooden figure stood in a beautiful irrigated valley with slightly tilted over on top of a Bund.

The figure was carved from a fairly hard wood locally known as "Tembusu", scientifically "Fagraca Cochinchinensis" . The local view is that this wood would not last more than 50 years in the open.

The female wooden figure stood on a land belonging to a Kadazan, "Kemuje Bin Lajumin" and was erected approximately 50 years ago (1915) in favour of a widow with no children. The wooden women 6 feet 6 inches high, wear a conical hat of the sort in common use, otherwise no clothing is shown. The sex indicated by a small pair of breasts.

The treatment of the face and particularly the hollowing of the eye is unusual in Borneo wood carving. Quite usual are the bands of geometric parallel lines or cross lines below the block on which she seated.

"Zinzanji" was the name of the widow commemorated by the female wooden figure. She dedicated the land to Lajumin's father. When she died he arranged for a special MINAGANG ceremony for the heir less, killing three buffaloes and providing much feasting.

"Minagang" or The Art Distribution of Property by the Heirless "Status Maker" for the giver in itself a form of memorialising and being remembered after death. With these Kadazan, land normally belong to the family as a form of pusaka. A childless man's land goes to brother or nephews, not his wife. If it is the wife's land by direct inheritance it will not revert to the husband on death but to her own kin. The threat or fear of his side acquiring the property by precedent and possession has certainly made this wooden stature usage of special value to widows in establishing rightful claim before their own death.

Lajumin's father commissioned a then famous craftsman, Lajoman from Kampung Maan near Penampang to do the wood work for the traditional fee, a bundle of padi, 10 gantang (60 lbs) of rice, a black sarong cloth and a chicken. Additional payment over and above this would have been an ill omen, damaging to Lajoman's craft and this is one reason why the craft has now disappeared.

The female wooden figure was relocated to Sabah Museum. Their removal was initiated when E. J. H. Berwick, was the first curator (1963-1964) and involved considerable negotiations as the whole community felt implicated while admitting Lajumin's personal property right. In the end the transfer was agreed against payment of water buffalo, a pig and a chicken (together worth M$230) and M$50 in cash, provided concrete replicas were put up to replace the figures in exactly the same positions.

This offer was accepted and the wooden originals were taken to Kota Kinabalu in 1965. The Public Work Department there, first made exact wooden replicas, the concrete cast copies for erection back in the fields. The results can be seen in the Sabah Museum and on Kemuje's rice fields, do great credit to craftsman Charles Jonioh and foreman Ho Cheu Hwei, working under mechanical engineer M. H. Leonard.

Edited by : Kumis Kumis

Source : The Prehistory of Sabah by Tom and Barbara Harrisson, 1971

Photo Credit M Gore and Google Images